Posted on 05/17/2024 6:27:45 AM PDT by Red Badger
Common drugs prescribed to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are associated with an increased risk of glaucoma, a recent Canadian study found.
Glaucoma is a progressive eye disease that causes vision loss. Angle-closure glaucoma is a subtype that contraindicates with popular ADHD drugs.
Dr. Rami Darwich, an ophthalmology resident and the study’s lead author, told The Epoch Times that the study “does not establish causation but rather highlights an elevated risk of glaucoma.”
Common ADHD Drugs
Many popular ADHD drugs are sympathomimetic drugs, meaning they activate the sympathetic nervous system to help people focus. However, their downstream effects can inadvertently contribute to elevated eye pressure.
High eye pressure is a significant risk factor for glaucoma, though Dr. Darwich added that some glaucoma has developed even without significant pressure changes in recent years.
Common ADHD drugs include sympathetic stimulants such as methylphenidate and amphetamines. These are often first-line treatments for people with ADHD due to their greater efficacy. Psychostimulants are effective for about 70 percent of ADHD patients.
Non-sympathomimetic drugs, such as atomoxetine, increase chemicals in the brain to help the brain work and concentrate. Atomoxetine is usually prescribed when the patient is unresponsive to first-line drugs.
The study authors followed 240,257 newly prescribed subjects who took either methylphenidate, amphetamines, atomoxetine, or a combination of these drugs for a year or more.
Study participants were then followed and compared to people who had not taken ADHD drugs to determine glaucoma risks.
People who took amphetamines and atomoxetine had a higher risk of angle-closure glaucoma (ACG), while people who took methylphenidate had a higher risk of open-angle glaucoma (OAG).
Our eyes are made up of fluids. Comparing a person’s eyes to a sink, Dr. Darwich explained that ACG occurs when “the drainage pipe of the sink gets blocked, causing the water (fluid inside your eye) to build up suddenly.”
With OAG, “the drainage pipe is open, but it’s like it’s clogged or narrow, so the water (fluid inside your eye) drains too slowly,” he said.
One might experience “severe eye pain, headache, and blurred vision” with ACG. “It can feel like there’s pressure building up in your eye.”
OAG is more chronic and doesn’t present with noticeable symptoms at first. Over time, blind spots can appear in the periphery, which can then progress to the center of one’s vision. However, much of the eye damage has already been done by that stage.
The authors also noted that atomoxetine and amphetamines were weakly linked to the development of OAG, though they said the correlation wasn’t statistically significant.
How ADHD Drugs Contribute to Glaucoma
The authors were surprised that methylphenidate was not strongly linked to ACG, which is contraindicated by psychostimulants that activate the nervous system.
In general, sympathomimetic drugs such as methylphenidate and amphetamines are not recommended for individuals with known or suspected ACG.
Since these medications activate the sympathetic nervous system—the system that prepares the body for fight or flight—the pupils dilate, which can mechanically obstruct the eye’s natural drainage pathway. This fluid buildup can increase eye pressure and damage the optic nerves, causing glaucoma and progressive vision loss.
OAG is more common than ACG, though it has a lower risk of vision loss, and its link to ADHD drugs is not well-established.
Methylphenidate, the drug shown to increase the risk of OAG, has also been found to be toxic to eye cells. The three medications studied have also been known to induce redox reactions, which may lead to oxidative damage, potentially impairing optical nerves and affecting eye health.
People whose bodies don’t properly metabolize ADHD drugs may also be at greater risk of drug-related glaucoma.
“Given the prevalence of ADHD medication use (medically and recreationally), further studies are needed to confirm our findings and investigate associations of ADHD medication use and glaucoma,” the authors wrote.
Call me crazy but I wonder how many of these kids taking ADHD drugs would not need them if they ate a more balanced and natural food diet and were forced to go outside and engage in physical activity, like riding a bike, etc.
Ritalin?
Most of them.
ADHD is a made-up disorder to sell drugs and make teachers’ lives easier......................
Waaaaaaaaaaay over prescribed. A friend’s son used ADHD as an excuse for his rotten behavior.
How about the increased risk of committing a mass shooting?
Methylphenidate is Ritalin..............
Diet is a good point.
They had me on ADHD Pills even when I was running through the swampy forests of GA on a daily basis as a kid.
I believe it is something most people can grow out of, but the mental belief of they cannot operate without the pills is too damn strong for them to even try.
I stopped when I was 17 because I knew it was doing something to my body, potentially permanent damage, and refused since then. Been doing fine.
I have always considered my ADD/ADHD to be Gods gift to humanity and I thoroughly enjoy it, have never taken any psychotropic drugs to alter it either and I am in my 60’s.
bkmk
Guess what can also do it.
CoupFlu vaccines.
But those are still recommended, aren’t they...
You gave the answer I was going to post in your first post! (Hello by the way :) When I was young my dad had the perfect solution for my ADHD, which by the way was called a normal, overactive kid. He’d make me run around the house while he sat on the porch and counted how many times I made it around. That always wore me out enough to calm down lol!
I’m not that old, mid-60s, went to elementary school in the late 60s and graduated high school in 1978.
Growing up I never knew anyone that was autistic, suffered from ADHD, had a peanut allergy, and other things that are common now.
I was lucky I grew up in a farming environment, we grew most of our own vegetables and meat including beef, pork, chicken, eggs, occasionally we had venison and other game meat.
I ask what has changed since then and now, I can only think of processed food, incredible number of vaccines, lack of physical exercise and the reliance on drugs to heal every ailment people have.
Some combination of those things has turned millions into drug addicts that are chronically sick their entire lives.
“Speed Kills” (If the 70’s taught you nothing else)
I CAN’T DRIVE 55!..................
More than you know...
My oldest son was diagnosed ADHD, not by the schools, but by a board certified psychiatrist.
He was prescribed medication. They started at the lowest possible dose and went up as need.
Not like the school diagnosed kids that they start on the highest dose and work down.
The schools diagnosed my youngest son with ADHD.
We took him to the same psychiatrist that diagnosed son #1.
The answer from him was not no, but hell no.
We KNEW, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what ADHD looked and acted like.
The schools get more money to deal with ADHD then with a normal kid. This is why they do this.
As a side note, the oldest was an A-B student. Then he came to us when he was about 13, and asked to be taken off the drugs. He said he did not like how they made him feel.
We said OK, but your grades are probably going to drop.
And they did.
But, I never saw someone work so hard to get the grades he got.
He has carried this well into adulthood, and is highly successful.
And as another side note, I wonder how many of these school shootings and the like, had the kids on or withdrawing from these psycotrophic drugs?
We’ve raised an entire generation or two on drugs, processed food, lack of exercise, excessive number of vaccines, etc.
A lot of these kids today are being raised by parents that were on the same drugs their kids are on now, except many of the parents have moved on to excessive alcohol usage and things like anti-depressants, etc.
There is no wonder we have these mass shootings and millions of Americans who are drug dependent either on prescribed or illegal.
I agree with you.
But, this starts with the parents.
If you get the petty government bureaucrat telling you that they have diagnosed your child and want to put him or her on meds, The first question should be to see their credentials.
Anything without the letters PHD next to it is unacceptable.
They are not doctors.
Tell them to go to hell.
Like I said above, genuine ADHD is super easy to see.
Take your child to a doctor.
Not a counselor, not a psychologist, but a board certified psychiatrist.
Easy peasy.
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